Cupid Sure Does Have A Funny Way Of Working
by Em Zep
Summary: An unadressed love letter makes its way around the castle causing several awkward situations to arise.


Hermione took a deep breath, dipped her quill into her inkwell, and began writing. She had been working on this project for hours, and still had not gotten it right. She knew what she wanted to say, but didn't know quite how to word it. She had never had this much trouble with her wording in her life and didn't understand why it was so difficult to put down what she wanted to say.

Pausing every now and then to read what she had written, Hermione finally finished. She read the entire thing to herself.

_We have known each other for quite a while now, and there_

_is something that I have been wanting to tell you. I thought it would_

_be much easier to do this in writing, but it has still been a very_

_difficult task to tell you how I feel about you._

_We have spent a lot of time together over the last few years, and_

_I love every moment of it. I don't know what I would have done if you_

_had never come into my life. With all that we do together, I am sure you_

_have noticed a certain amount of sexual tension between us. I certainly_

_have, and I love it._

_If you have not yet figured out what I am getting at (which is all too_

_likely, you are a bit dense sometimes.) I'll just come out and say it. I love_

_you, and I hope that you feel the same way about me._

Hermione thought that it was a very good letter, but knew there was no way she could actually give that to him. Sighing deeply, Hermione picked up the parchment, and was about to ball it up to throw away when the trap door leading into the Gryffindor Common Room opened. A very small creature was walking towards her.

"Hello Dobby." Hermione greeted.

The house elf jumped. "Oh, I did not see you there, ma'am. Dobby came to clean, but her will come back later."

"Nonsense, Dobby. Don't you remember me? Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's friend."

"You is a friend of Harry Potter? So is Dobby!"

"I know." Hermione got an idea. "Dobby, could I ask you a favor?"

"Yes ma'am, Dobby would do anything for a friend of Harry Potter."

"I just need you to deliver this to him." Hermione folded the parchment over once and handed it to Dobby. "But don't tell him who it's from, alright? I want to see his reaction before I tell him."

"Yes, Dobby will do that first thing in the morning."

"Thanks, I owe you one."

Though Hermione didn't really approve of asking a house elf to do something for her, she thought it was alright to ask a favor of Dobby seeing how she considered him a friend, not a slave. Besides, he was free and could have refused if he wanted to. Hermione gathered up her belongings and headed to bed. She hadn't realized how sleepy she was.

Harry woke up the next morning to a sound that most definitely wasn't Neville's snoring. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked around for the sound. It was coming from the foot of his bed where a house elf was perched, humming complacently to itself.

"Dobby, what in the world are you doing here?"

The house elf jumped and fell off the bed. Harry sat up and looked over the edge to see if he was alright. Dobby quickly recovered himself and stood up.

"What are you doing here?" Harry repeated.

"I have a letter for you." Dobby handed over Hermione's letter.

Harry opened it, wondering who would send him a letter by house elf rather than by owl. He read over the letter, and then, disbelieving what he thought it said, he read it again.

"Dobby, who is this from?" He asked, curious to know who felt that way about him.

Dobby shifted his posture. His ears pointed down, and he grasped his hands together. "Dobby isn't going to tell Harry Potter."

Harry didn't know if house elves could blush, but Dobby was pretty close to it. "Dobby—"

The house elf shook his head and left the room, not wanting to give up his secret.

Harry had never seen Dobby act that way before. It was really strange. He read over the letter again, wondering who would send him such a thing. And who would give it to Dobby to deliver? Nobody. Nobody in the castle really spoke to Dobby besides Harry as far as he knew. But if nobody spoke to Dobby and nobody gave him the letter to deliver, than that would mean the letter was from Dobby himself.

Harry dropped the letter, completely disgusted by the idea. Dobby had written Harry a love letter? Dobby felt sexual tension when they were together? Dobby was in love with Harry? Harry pictured himself curling up in front of the fire, cuddling with Dobby the house elf. As revolting as the idea was, it was also highly amusing. Harry couldn't help but chuckle out loud.

Ron slowly sat up, yawning loudly and rubbing his eyes. He squinted at Harry.

"What are you still doing here?" Ron asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought McGonagall rescheduled your detention to this morning so you wouldn't miss quidditch practice tonight."

Harry gasped. "That's right. I'm late!"

Harry jumped out of bed and hurriedly pulled some clothes on. It was made difficult by the fact that he was still trying to hold on to Dobby's letter. He tossed it on Ron's bed.

Ron picked up the letter and began reading just as Harry ran from the dormitory. When he finished, Ron gulped. He couldn't believe that Harry felt that way about him. And all these years he'd been hiding it. It must have been so hard for him. Ron couldn't wait until he saw Harry again so he could tell him that he did feel the same way. He had always felt the same way, since the first time he saw him at King's Cross.

Quite bright and chipper, Ron hopped out of bed and got dressed with a happy tune playing about his heart. He probably wouldn't see Harry again until potions, which was their first class of the day, right after breakfast. Ron wasn't sure if he would be able to control his emotions for that long. He gently placed the letter into his bag and went downstairs.

Hermione was already in the Common Room when Ron went down. She looked really tired, like she had only gotten a few hours of sleep. Ron sat down cautiously. Hermione wasn't always pleasant when she wasn't well rested. Of course, she wasn't always pleasant when she was.

"You alright, Hermione?"

"Yeah. Fine. Just tired. I stayed up all night writing."

"Oh, you probably shouldn't have done that."

"I had to. It was important."

"What was it?"

"Want to get some breakfast?" Hermione asked, changing the subject.

"Sure."

Ron couldn't think about anything other than the letter all during breakfast. He was surprised that he wasn't a bit nervous. Of course, he now knew that Harry had feelings for him as well.

When it was almost time for potions, Ron and Hermione grabbed their bags and went to the dungeons. Harry wasn't back from his detention yet, but they both figured that he would be back before the lesson actually started. They were wrong. Snape entered and closed the door behind himself and Harry still was not there.

"Where do you think he is?" Ron whispered to Hermione.

"I don't know. Surely McGonagall wouldn't make him miss his lessons."

"Do you think—"

"If I may interrupt." Snape said coldly, stopping Ron mid-sentence. "Cauldrons away, quill and parchment out."

Nobody moved. They hadn't needed quill and parchment for potions since their first year.

"Now!" This time the class obeyed. "I thought that today would be a good day to test over what we've been learning recently." He waved his wand and a list of questions appeared on the board. "You have until the end of class. I suggest you begin."

Ron dug through his bag. He had a quill and inkwell, but he couldn't find any parchment. He never bothered to bring any to potions. He tried to catch Hermione's eye to ask her if he could borrow some, but she was deeply enthralled in the test. Ron continued digging through his bag.

"Aha!" He said, finding a bit.

"Silence!" Snape yelled. "This is a test!"

Rushing, Ron began reading the questions on the board. He dipped his quill into the inkwell and answered them the best that he could, knowing that he was nowhere near correct on most of them. Ron was only halfway through when Snape started collecting the tests.

After potions, when Harry still hadn't shown up, Ron and Hermione went looking for him. They ran into McGonagall in the hallway.

"Professor, did Harry ever show up for his detention this morning?" Hermione asked.

"You're wondering why he wasn't in class, correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Harry was rearranging the paintings in the Main Hall, and Peeves thought it would be amusing to drop a bust on his head. He is currently lying in the Hospital Wing unconscious."

"What?" Ron and Hermione made a beeline for the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey met them at the door.

"And what do you two want?"

"Is Harry in here?"

"What kind of question is that? Isn't he always in here?"

"Can we see him?"

"I suppose so, but keep it down. He has just regained consciousness."

Harry was lying in a bed on the opposite side of the wing, his head heavily bandage. Ron and Hermione sat beside him on either side of the bed.

"How are you feeling?" Ron asked.

"Fine. I've told Madam Pomfrey I'm good to go, but she won't listen."

"We were worried when you didn't show up for potions."

"Yeah, well, take it up with Peeves."

"Why would he drop a bust on your head?"

"Why does Peeves do any of the things he does? He probably found it hilarious."

"You missed a test." Hermione said. "I don't know if Snape will let you make it up, either."

"Probably not. He enjoys watching me fail."

Ron started digging through his bag, looking for the letter that Harry had given him that morning. He didn't really want to discuss it in front of Hermione, but didn't see any way around it.

"Where is it…where is it?" Ron said to himself, searching. The letter was no where to be found in his bag. "Where did I put it?"

"What are you looking for?" Harry asked, leaning over.

"Your letter."

"Alright, that's enough." Madam Pomfrey said, ushering Ron and Hermione away. "He needs to get some rest, and he can't do that with the two of you here."

"We'll come back later." Hermione whispered.

Ron and Hermione left the hospital wing. On the way back to Gryffindor Tower, Ron tried to remember what in the world he had done with Harry's letter. He distinctly remembered tucking it into his bag that morning before going downstairs.

Snape was rounding a corner ahead of them. Trying to avoid eye contact, Ron and Hermione kept going along their merry way, hoping he wouldn't punish them for something stupid and completely unreasonable like he was so fond of doing. To their dismay, Snape crossed the corridor and approached them.

"Weasely, could I have a word with you in my office?"

Horrified, Ron followed Snape away from Hermione, and into the dungeons. Snape closed his office door behind Ron, and sat at his desk. For a few minutes he just sat there, not saying anything. If Ron didn't know any better he would think that Snape was gazing into his eyes.

"Is something wrong, Professor?" Ron asked cautiously.

"I wanted to speak to you about the test you turned in to me earlier today."

"I know I failed it. You don't need to tell me." Ron said, though he wasn't quite sure how Snape had had time to grade them already.

"It's nothing like that. I haven't even begun to grade them yet. However, I did look through them to see if I had received one from everyone, and I happened across yours." Snape held up the piece of parchment that Ron had turned in. "When I looked at it, I noticed there was writing on both sides. One side was your test, and the other…"

Snape held out the parchment so that Ron could see what was on the other side. Ron leaned forward so he could see better, and gasped. Snape pulled the parchment away and read the letter out loud.

"Ron, I want you to know that while I feel the same way, a relationship between the two of us would never work. You are a student and I am your teacher. I could lose my job if I acted on my romantic urges towards you."

"Your urges towards me?"

Snape leaned over his desk. "I have noticed the sexual tension between us. How could I not? I've wanted on so many occasions to just rip your clothes off and have my way with you, but I've had to restrain myself, first of all because I did not think you shared my feelings, and second because that would be grounds for dismissal. But Ron, just know that even though we can never really be together, I will always have feelings for you." Snape reached his hand across the desk, but Ron pulled away and fled. Snape had feelings for him? That had to be the most disgusting thing he had ever encountered, and he had once barfed up slugs.

Ron ran back to the hospital wing so that he could tell Harry about what just happened. He had to tell someone.

Harry was lying in bed, but he wasn't sleeping. He was staring up at the ceiling, looking incredibly bored. Ron tiptoed in quietly so that Madam Pomfrey wouldn't know he was in there. If she didn't know he was there, she couldn't kick him out.

"Hey Harry." Ron whispered, sitting beside the bed again. "Guess what just happened." Ron related the Snape story to Harry who laughed at the end. "Oh, I'm glad you find it so amusing. I found it disgusting myself…I'm sorry for being so careless with your letter."

"Don't worry about it. I didn't want it any way."

"Maybe you didn't want it, but I sure did. You poured your heart out in that letter, and I did worse than throw it away. I let Snape get at it. Harry, I just want to thank you for letting your true feelings about me come out, and I wanted to tell you that I feel the same way."

"You…what?"

"Harry, I love you too." Ron leapt to his feet, leaned over Harry, embraced him, and initiated a kiss.

Harry pushed him away. "Ron, that letter wasn't—oh, what the hell!" He grabbed Ron's arm, pulled him in again, and kissed him back.

"What in the world is going on here?" Madam Pomfrey demanded, coming out of her office. "Weasely, I said he needed sleep, not to be molested by his best friend. Get out!"

"If you make him leave, then I'm leaving too." Harry said.

"You most certainly are not."

"You can't stop me. Ron stays."

"Fine. You have ten more minutes, and then I'm calling the headmaster." She retreated back in her office.

"So…um…" Harry stuttered. "What does this mean?"

Ron furrowed his brow. "I don't really know. What do you want it to mean?"

"Are we…dating now?"

"Do you want to be?"

"Do you?"

"I do if you do."

"I might."

"Alright, but you know that I don't have much money to take you out with or anything."

"Good. I'd rather be the guy, anyway."

Ron smiled sheepishly. "Mum always said you'd end up dating one of her children. Of course, I'm pretty sure she thought it would be Ginny."

Harry laughed.

"I'd better go before Madam Pomfrey has a fit." Ron said.

"Yeah. I should be out of here by tomorrow."

"Alright. I'll see you then." Ron leaned over and gave Harry one last good night kiss.

Harry stared after Ron a bit confused. He had always liked Ron, but he just thought they had a very strong friendship. He had never even considered dating, of course, he had never even considered the thought that he might be gay. But when Ron kissed him, it felt so right, like they should have been doing it all along. Harry was glad that Ron had thought that Dobby's letter had been for him, other wise he probably never would have made a move on him. Cupid sure did have a funny way of working.

Harry was out of the hospital wing by noon the next day. When he went to the Common Room, Ron was sitting there, talking to Hermione, Neville, Dean and Seamus. Harry approached.

Before he reached the group, Hermione saw him and ran interference, pulling him aside.

"Harry, I need to talk to you."

"What about?"

"Did you happen to get any letters lately? From Dobby?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I did. That little scoundrel wrote me a love letter." Harry laughed.

"You think Dobby wrote you a love letter?"

"Yeah, he gave it to me yesterday morning."

"Harry, Dobby didn't write that letter."

Harry furrowed his brow. "Then who did?"

Hermione stared at him, biting her lip.

"It was from you?"

She nodded. "So…what did you think?"

"Oh, Hermione, I'm so sorry. You see, I thought it was from Dobby, so I gave it to Ron to read, but he thought it was from me. Ron accidentally turned it in to Snape, who thought that Ron had feelings for him, and when Ron came to tell me about it, we realized that we have feelings for each other, so we decided to give a relationship a go."

Hermione was quiet for a few minutes. "You're dating Ron?"

"Yeah."

"Because of my letter?"

"That's right. So I guess I should thank you."

Hermione's expression changed. "You're a fag?"

"That's a mean way to put it, but I guess so."

"And Ron too?"

"Yes, Ron too. Are you okay with that?"

"I guess so." Hermione said, completely heart broken and humiliated.

Harry left Hermione and joined Ron and the other guys, leaving Hermione standing there alone trying to figure out what she should do to regain her dignity.

"So, you two are dating?" Seamus was asking them.

"That's right."

"I was wondering how long that would take you two."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you've been so close for so long that it almost seems like you've always been together."

"You and Dean have been friends for just as long."

Seamus thought for a minute. "You know, you're right." He looked at Dean. "Want to give it a go?"

"No." Dean said without hesitating.

Hermione stomped her way back into the group. She grabbed Neville by the collar, pulling him to his feet. For a minute, it looked as though she was going to punch him, but Hermione went in the complete opposite direction with her action. She kissed him, long and hard. Neville actually fell to his knees when she was done. Feeling that she had made her point that she did not need Harry, Hermione took her seat, smiling complacently to herself.

Draco Malfoy turned around to open the door to Snapes office. He was just finishing up with a meeting with his head of house. Before he left, however, Snape handed him a piece of parchment.

"Take that with you. I don't want to get caught with it."

"Yes sir." Draco took the parchment without question and exited. When he was in the hall, he read it.

_We have known each other for quite a while now, and there_

_is something that I have been wanting to tell you. I thought it would_

_be much easier to do this in writing, but it has still been a very_

_difficult task to tell you how I feel about you._

_We have spent a lot of time together over the last few years, and_

_I love every moment of it. I don't know what I would have done if you_

_had never come into my life. With all that we do together, I am sure you_

_have noticed a certain amount of sexual tension between us. I certainly_

_have, and I love it._

_If you have not yet figured out what I am getting at (which is all too_

_likely, you are a bit dense sometimes.) I'll just come out and say it. I love_

_you, and I hope that you feel the same way about me._

He read over it once, and then, disbelieving what he had seen written on the page, he read it again. He looked back at the dungeon door, disgusted.

"Snape has a crush on me?" Draco said out loud. Then he shrugged. "Well, join the club."


End file.
